After the Tragedy - American Gothic
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Rating: 3.6 / 5.0 (39 Votes)
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Recap

Cam attends a Narcotics Anonymous meeting, where he confesses that he had a relapse. A fellow member forces him to delete his dealer Rick's number from his phone, insisting on watching. When Cam turns on his phone, it's flooded with messages letting him know that Mitchell died.

Cam returns home and he, Alison, and Tessa go to retrieve the box with the silver bells from the shed. It is not there. Madeline intercepts them. She explains that she got rid of it and tells Alison, Tessa, and Cam that their father was showing signs of dementia, causing him to have the delusional belief that he was the SBK.

Brady works the SBK case with Detective Cutter, who is very critical of him and pushes him to investigate the Hawthornes, though Brady resists, claiming that the accepted SBK M.O. was that he was a blue-collar worker who resented the wealthy and wanted to pick them off. He initially only wants to investigate the laborers who were at the site when the cement containing the belt was poured, but Cutter pushes him to investigate the supervisors as well -- including Mitchell.He reluctantly agrees to retrieve Mitchell's DNA before he is laid to rest.

The Hawthorne neighbor Phyllis confronts Madeline about her cat's tail having been re-attached. Madeline brushes her off, pointing out that Mitchell had just died.

The hospital calls Madeline in to discuss the fact that Mitchell's machines appear to have malfunctioned and request to retrieve his body so an autopsy can be performed and they can determine cause of death. Madeline agrees, but immediately calls the funeral home and tells them to send him body to the crematorium immediately, intending to burn the evidence of her crime.

Meanwhile, Garrett plans to speak at the funeral, sending Madeline and Alison into a panic that he will destroy their family name. Alison consults with her campaign manager Naomi, who encourages Alison to keep Garrett away. When Alison tears up about her father, Naomi holds her hand intimately and gets very close to her, to comfort her.

Tessa gathers photos for the funeral. She talks to the groundskeeper Gunther, who tells her that he and Mitchell were having chess nights up until only a week prior and that Mitchell didn't seem out of sorts, casting doubt on Madeline's dementia story.

Jack is disgruntled and repeatedly asks Cam whether he'll be able to see Mitchell's corpse. Cam brushes him off, trying to explain why Mitchell's death should be a sad occasion, and accosts one of the waiters working the wake in order to buy drugs off of him.

En route to the church service, Brady tries to find Mitchell's body to take DNA off of it, only to be told it was taken to the crematorium early, per Madeline's orders. Brady races to get to the body, but isn't able to get to it before the body is cremated.

On his way to the service, Garrett is arrested due to his expired license and registration for his car. Detective Cutter calls Brady to tell him that Garrett was brought in. Brady calls the lieutenant to have Garrett released, saying that he cannot miss his father's funeral.

Tessa confronts her mother after also hearing that Mitchell played bridge with his and Madeline's friends, suggesting that Madeline is lying about the dementia. Madeline angrily tells Tessa that Mitchell was deteriorating and even asked her to euthanize him during his lucid moments.

Garrett makes it to the service in time. He comforts Tessa after he confrontation with Madeline. Seeing Tessa's pain, he backs down from his confrontational eulogy and cuts it short. Alison gives a speech about Mitchell. Unable to handle his pain, Cam brings Sophie to the bathroom during the service and tries to do drugs with her to take the edge off. Sophie takes the drugs away and suggests sex instead. They have sex in the bathroom stall.

While Cam and Sophie are otherwise occupied, Jack gets up to deliver a speech. He speaks about how sad he is not to see Mitchell's decomposing body, shocking and alarming everyone in attendance (except for Garrett, who laughs).

After the service, Sophie leaves, sneaking away with the drugs to take herself.

During the wake after the service, Alison's husband presents her with a music box, a reference to her eulogy. She kisses him, while Naomi looks on at them intently.

Madeline confronts Cam and tells her that Jack needs therapy, and that she saw the neighbor's cat. She recalls that Cam also went to therapy when he was younger. 

Brady searches for Mitchell's clothing in an attempt to get ahold of Mitchell's DNA. He gets a call from Cutter who tells him that the belt found did not actually belong to the victim, David Morales. Cutter points out that the belt was very expensive, and Brady realizes that the assumed profile of the killer as a blue-collar worked might be wrong. In the pictures of Mitchell at the wake, he spots the same belt on a younger Cam in a photo from 2002.

Madeline confronts Garrett privately and tells him to leave because he is a grenade. He warns her to handle him carefully.

Show:
American Gothic
Season:
Episode Number:
2
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American Gothic Season 1 Episode 2 Quotes

My name is Jack Hawthorne and I'm going to talk about my grandpa. It's very sad that I'll never get to see him alive again. It's also sad that I'll never get to talk to him, hug him, or ask him advice. But I'm mostly sad because grandpa was cremated and I never got to see his decomposing body.

Jack

I hated my father. He's the reason I left my family behind fourteen years ago. When I left, he told me that my anger would fade one day and that I'd come home and we could just pick up where we left off. He lied to me. Time ran out.

Garrett